Christmas in Tokyo

Jeremy Chan spent his December holiday on a GEN12ii mission trip in Japan. He tells us the tremendous blessings it resulted in his life.

Last June, I started off with a vision of doing more for God’s kingdom. The best way to accomplish that, I thought, was to do mission work as it placed me at forefront of God’s rescue work for the lost.

When I started the preparations, I wanted to pay for all the expenses myself. Being quite self-reliant, I was unsure if I could raise enough money from my limited Christian contacts. Therefore during support-raising updates to the team leader, I always reported an unhealthy zero. Subsequently, one of the staff explained patiently to me about the rationale of raising support – raising faith in God within ourselves.

The situation was bleak as I had only one day to raise two thousand odd dollars. I decided to submit to the authorities as reminded by Rom 13:1 ‘Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.’

I prayed frantically, telling God that the whole situation was in His hands and that I had no control over it. I started to contact my friends, while trusting that God will work in their hearts.

In retrospect, this was an important lesson that God taught me. Before this, the concept of reliance in God and grace lived only in the Bible, and not in my life. God also taught me a lesson of humility, by which my pride and self-reliance was overthrown.

Indeed God is abundant. He continued to change my perception of Him through His provision during the mission trip. Part of our work in Japan was to distribute gospels CDs on the streets of Tokyo. We were frequently unable to distribute the last few CDs as people avoided us when there were a few discs left in our hands. Standing out in the cold and being rejected by people was not a pleasant experience. However, I soon discovered a solution to this problem. After we closed the distribution session with a short prayer, we were able to give out the poisonous discs immediately. This was surely an immediate answer to our prayers.

On one particularly freezing night, I was trying hard to encourage myself and put on my best smile while distributing. I guess God saw my efforts and soon after, a choir started singing nearby. My heart was uplifted by the familiar Christmas songs and it reminded me of the eternal gift that we received in Christ.

Throughout the mission trip, I saw God fighting for the lost and bringing His children into the Kingdom. I still savor the joy of welcoming a new brother or sister into the family of God. It is the next best thing to seeing the Red Sea being divided.

I witnessed how God brought the Japanese to believe in Him through the efforts of my team mates. This is amazing because Japan is known to be hard ground spiritually. Furthermore, we were able to share the gospel with the Japanese who hardly speak English, even though we could not speak Japanese.

One of my teammates was overwhelmed when a Japanese girl agreed to receive Christ that she asked her to reread the sinner’s prayer just to ensure that she was sincere. It was particularly fascinating because we befriended her only a few days ago while visiting the universities in Tokyo and saw her transform from a stranger to a fellow sister-in-Christ. Indeed, God orchestrated this situation and we knew that it was impossible for us to achieve such a feat.

Such are the numerous experiences of God changing me and my fellow team members. To me, this mission trip was not “How Jeremy works for God on his first mission trip” but “How Jesus graciously transformed Jeremy in spite of his limitations and microscopic view of God”. The mission trip was truly a spiritual milestone in my walk with the Lord.

Therefore, I implore you to take part the Great Harvest that the Lord instructed us to reap. ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ Mat 28:19 Surely you will enjoy the abundant blessings of God even after the trip.

Found! Someone seeking God!

JESUS minimag and gospel tractsAeron Leong relates his disappointing, yet encouraging evangelism experience.

When I met my Disciple Group (DG) last month, I was surprised that my Spiritual Multiplier, Shao Hong, did not bring his DG material but said that we were doing something special - we were to evangelise.

Oh, no! I was so afraid. I had not done it before. But there was nothing I could do except to take up the challenge. We started off with prayer, after which Shao Hong gave us two Jesus mini-magazines to give out. I wandered around Canteen A for five minutes, and saw my friend. I approached her expecting that she would take the mini-magazine. But she rejected me harshly. Though I was very discouraged, I carried on, approached a guy and gave him the first mini-magazine. The second one was given to another girl.

I re-joined my DG mates discouraged because the feel of rejection was not easy to swallow. But I felt better through comforting words from Shao Hong and my DG members, though I was still concerned that the relationship with my friend would be affected.

However, something surprising happened. The guy whom I approached, Francis, messaged to say that he was very interested in Christianity and needed a guide in his faith. He asked if I could show him more about Christianity and justify Jesus's deity. This was God's answer to the discouragement and rejection that I had experienced earlier. Francis currently meets me for a Group Investigating God (GIG) study, where I share more about God.

Now that I've seen God work, I feel that this evangelism thing also known as Blitz is fun and exciting.

Aeron Leong (Year 1/ MAE)

For the North region, Blitz is carried out through distributing Jesus mini-magazines and sharing the gospel later.

God's Hand at Work

Rena Wong went to East Asia for a mission trip in June this year. She shares her testimony of how God worked through the Gen12ii mission.

Rena in East AsiaWe invited two girls, TW & WH*, to our room to 'teach them to play the guitar'. Using Christian songs as 'teaching materials', we tried to use the session as a platform to share. However, they soon got distracted by other things, making it difficult for us to continue.

While I was lamenting to myself, WH suddenly received a call from her sister who wanted to visit her. WH's sister was working in a neighbouring city, but had decided to drop by our city to visit her sister that afternoon.

When WH's sister came to our room, she saw the Christian songbook that we had. She turned to WH and said, "This is good for you. Read more about it, it is beneficial to you."

Wow! I was taken aback.

It turned out that WH's sister worked at a company headed by a Christian. She expressed her admiration for Christians, whom she felt dealt with life's trials very calmly; which was very different from others.

As we talked and shared with the sister, TW and WH's attention were slowly drawn back to us and our conversation about God.

After the session, WH messaged me to thank us for the time spent together, and said, "I will slowly grow to love God."

WH eventually prayed to receive Christ towards the end of our trip, while TW said that she will actively seek and find out more before making the decision.

Praise God! Till now, I am still amazed at how God-sent WH's sister was (she magically appeared out of nowhere!).

God is amazing!

*Names have been changed for security reasons.

Harvest Week

Janice (middle)Held once every semester, Harvest Week is a time for DGs to reach out to pre-believers by holding GIG sessions, doing Blitz, or inviting friends for fun activities. Janice shares her surprising harvest experience.

For harvest week, my DG decided to have a seeker-friendly picnic atop the ADM hill. I excitedly invited my room-mate along, whom I have known and tried to reach out to since we were in primary school.

Right before the picnic, however, my room-mate suddenly backed out because of a project meeting. Sadly, the friend my DG mate was supposed to bring could not join us either. We were really disappointed as the whole purpose of this picnic was to reach out to our non-Christian friends.

To make the situation worse, it started to storm. We moved the picnic to my room, not knowing that God had made the rain for a purpose. There in my room was my room-mate, because the rain had caused her project meeting to be cancelled!

She joined us and played some games, and my SM was able to subtly weave in questions about our purpose in life and having God in our lives. Through the game I learnt that my room-mate believes God exists and created her for a purpose, but that all gods are good.

She does not see the need to know her creator, however, as she thinks it does not concern her life. The next step is to pray that she will realize her need for God.

The most encouraging thing she said was that I have a positive outlook on life, and that I manage to go through life smoothly despite its ups and downs. When my SM asked why she said so, she responded that I have a strong faith and dependence on God to guide my life.

Have you ever wondered if people around you see the difference God makes in your life? I am indeed encouraged to continue consciously living a life that displays God's existence.

I want to encourage all of you to persevere in reaching out to that long-time friend who has yet to know Christ. Pray for opportunities and He will give them to you. Grab every occasion! Your friend may not receive Christ immediately.

Just remember that God's plans are bigger than yours, and He will make things happen in His own time and way. Trust Him!

Help! I'm scared to tell others about Jesus.

Mah Way Champ, a second-year Bio- Science student, shares how he overcame his fear of evangelism.

Initially, you will be anxious or be afraid of rejection, but that's only the initial part. When you realize that you are actually sharing the gospel to pre-believers and remember that the task to evangelize is a privilege given by God, your fear seems nothing compared to the task given to you. Furthermore, as you communicate with pre-believers about God, it becomes so interesting that you will forget your initial fear of rejection. The whole point is that street- evangelism is fun and exciting.

Easy and fun- that's evangelism!

I didn't know what to say, but I trusted Him

Grace WongGrace Wong shares what she learnt during her Gen 12ii mission trip to Nagoya, Japan. The second-year Economics student reached out to tertiary students in June.

I have always feared what to say when evangelizing, but God taught me that all I had to do was to rely on Him. I met this Japanese student, Marie, in Meigaidai University. During the first few times we interacted, she was pretty quiet. I thought that it would be difficult for me to sustain a conversation, much less bring Christ into the picture. But God was the one who enabled us to share our lives, and as we got to know each other better, He provided me with opportunities to share God’s love with her!

Through this, God showed me that He is the one who makes people open up their heart. Worrying about how to share Christ can be inevitable at times, but evangelism is about trusting God and knowing that He is our strength. So why worry? Simply go and take initiative! Let God amaze you!

Is Street Evangelism useless today?

Daniel Leow shares his views. When I received Christ into my life six years ago, I was highly unconvinced of using street witnessing to spread the gospel. I felt that it was inappropriate, pushy, and repelled non-Christians away from Christ. My view did not change despite regularly discussing with students on campus about their views towards Christianity during Blitz. I continued to think that these methods would never work in this age where people had no use for God.

Daniel Leow, left, with Edwin, partners during Project X

However, I was unexpectedly proven wrong during an outreach project at the annual Metamorphosis camp. During Project X, my partner and I approached two teenage boys. I asked for only five minutes of their time as I expected them to reject me. However, after asking several questions, I realized that the elder boy was very interested in Christianity though he is a Buddhist. After some discussion and with God's help, he accepted Christ on the spot. We were so amazed that we could almost drop down on our knees and praise God.

My First Blitz

We ask some freshies about their first campus witnessing experience.

Janice's DG (Lam Kuen Kay, Vania Yip, Yvonne Lee)

"I found it a meaningful time of sharing God’s love and learnt a lot about campus evangelism. Although there may be obstacles, God is always here to grant us strength to overcome them all."
Lam Yuen Kay, Chinese/1

"It dawned upon me how much people need the Lord but don’t get to hear about Him. My heart goes out to them."
Vania Yip, Psych/1

"I was a bit afraid when approaching strangers. I had to calm myself down so as not to appear unconfident to those people."
Lee Chee Siang, MSE/1

"It’s certainly something I would do again. In fact, it should be done often!"
Yvonne Lee, Econs/1

My first Blitz experience

Kelvin NgKelvin Ng, final year accountancy student, talks about his first school evangelism experience.

Being 23 years old, I feel embarrassed to be evangelizing for the first time. But it is better late than never. As my parents are non-Christians, the need to evangelize to them is a continual burden on my heart.

Despite praying for them, being a good testimony and having faith in God's providence, it is still essential that I act upon being a messenger of God's love. Before joining Campus Crusade, I was stubborn and selfish because I wanted to save my parents first before saving others. This meant that I would only evangelize to others at a ripe old age.

Before doing street evangelism, I was excited but fearful because I didn't know what to expect. But I knew that this experience would bring me one step closer to saving my parents, be a good messenger and to be accountable to God to tell others about Him.

God answered my prayers by removing my fear and giving me the joy of serving. There was an extra skip in my step when I went to the tutorial room where everybody was gathered. Kris, a staff with Campus Crusade, explained the witnessing process. She shared about God's perspective on the fear of witnessing, which gave me courage. We prayed for guidance and Holy Spirit to fill us before setting off to be a witness!

The first person Derek and I approached was a Christian, so we chatted a bit before looking for someone else. While walking along S4, we saw a guy studying alone. Derek prompted me to approach him. I asked him to do a survey regarding his worldview and he agreed without hesitation. Praise the Lord. Through the survey, we discussed his views about Christianity and other life issues. Although he is a foreigner with a poor command of English, I thank God that we could understand each other and that he shared his thoughts freely. His next lesson was about to start, so Derek summarized the Four Spiritual Laws and gave him our contact numbers so that he could call us if he had queries.

We approached another student and went through the survey. God blessed us another one who talked with us freely. He surprised us with his extensive knowledge of the various religions. I shared the gospel with him and told him about God's love and Jesus Christ. This reminded me about God's love and I was filled with a joy that could not be expressed by words alone. Although he did not want to receive Christ, I have faith that God will work in his live. I will leave the salvation of the two pre-believers into God's hands. I have delivered the gospel message and now pray that God will reveal Himself to them and that they will choose to receive Jesus Christ.

After evangelizing, Derek and I had a time of reflection so that I could be more prepared to share the next time. I felt that I did not prepare enough as I did not read the Four Spiritual Laws booklet and did not transit between the different pages properly. I also very thankful for Derek who helped me deal with the difficult questions posed by the pre-believers. He reminded me to continually give thanks to God for working in my life and the lives I was reaching.

This is my first witnessing experience, but it definitely will not be my last! As Christians, we should be witnessing everyday in one way or another and glorifying God with the gifts he has blessed us with!

For the South region, school witnessing (Blitz) is carried out through first doing a survey about one's worldview with the pre-believer and sharing the gospel later.

Part of the Family

Paul WongEver wondered how God could work through a seemingly ordinary Crossroads session? Sometimes what we fail to notice, or come to know about are the miracles God works in the hearts of crusaders through what seems to be so normal.

About half a year ago, God did just that. You know how He works in mysterious ways, and by no coincidence, He worked in the lives of two crusaders, Paul Wong and Robson Tseu.

Robson found out about Crossroads and appeared at a South Crossroads meeting one night. By a simple turn of events, he ended up right next to Paul who helped to reaffirm Robson's faith in God.

Paul and Robson did not sit next to each other initially, but because of an ice-breaker game they ended up sitting next to each other.

After the speaker had shared, they paired up to pray. It was then that Robson revealed that he had been going to church with his friend and that he had prayed to receive Christ.

Paul felt compelled to reaffirm Robson's faith in God and talked to him about what it meant to really be a Christian.

Eventually Paul prayed the sinner's prayer with Robson as an assurance of salvation. Robson is now assimilated into a discipleship group.

In Paul's words, "It was amazing how God was able to put in me the words to say, and how all those thinking cells of mine were suddenly working at 101 percent! I believed He'd prepared the way somehow."

This reminds me of how so very often God uses insignificant people or moments to accomplish big things. So do not let anything hinder you from sharing God's word and God's love with anyone, because you don't know what He could accomplish through you.

By Daena Ch'ng

Telling my Hall Committee about God

Have you ever wondered how to evangelize to your hall friends? Let Teo Huimin tell you how she used little opportunities to be God's salt and light.

Huimin (bottom, centre) and her hall committeeDoes evangelism only happen when you (1) present the 4 Spiritual Laws, (2) show a few passages from the Bible, (3) share the full story of Jesus and how He died on the cross for our sins?

Is evangelism successful only when someone prays to receive Christ immediately after your sharing?

After working in a hall committee as the chairperson, I realized that there are many other ways to evangelize, and share more about your faith as a Christian.

In my hall's charity project, a committee of 21 people work together to plan a charity carnival for a beneficiary. The aim of the charity carnival is to raise funds and public awareness of the Children's Cancer Foundation.

Tickets sold to raise funds for the beneficiaryWhen I started off, I had this burden for the committee, as I realized that all 20 of them are non-Christians, except for this girl who is a Catholic. I wanted to sow some seeds in this committee by the end of my term, so I prayed and asked "How?" The workload is very high, such that usually we'll either just discuss work or joke around, and there is no time for anything else.

However, I realized that evangelism can be done in simple and small ways.

There was trouble in the committee once, and I was quite angry with a few of them. I was so tempted to scold them over msn, because their work was not properly done. However, before I could lash out any of my anger, the verse Ephesians 4:26-28 came to mind: In your anger do not sin; Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

The verse spoke to me and I calmed down immediately. I decided to put the verse up on my MSN nick. My committee members saw it and some started to ask me whether it was from the Bible, and what the Bible teaches.

Hence, there was a small chance just to elaborate a bit more on the Bible and explain the verse, and for me to tell them directly about why I was feeling angry, yet without being cutting or mean.

There was another instance of problems with getting sponsors, and discouraged some of them. To encourage them, I wrote an email and threw in Romans 5:3 "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope". I managed to share through the email my testimony of how I can hang on even when troubles arise, for it is part of my Christian belief that times of crisis are times to mould and build my faith.

More recently, we celebrated the last day of our charity carnival with supper, which happened to be the 15th day of the Lunar Seventh Month. Hence, ghosts were quite a hot topic. I managed to share about my faith, and why I was not afraid of ghosts, and walking around at wee hours (it was around 2 am that time, and it was believed that ghosts were the fiercest and most energetic at that hour). I made my stand that my God was sovereign and has conquered all evil forces, so there was nothing for me to fear.

At the end of the day, though I didn't see anyone pray to receive Christ, or asking to go to church with me, but I believe these small acts have impacted them in some way or other. Hopefully (I pray!), I have been a good testimony for God throughout my term in the committee.

I was very happy, that at the end of the term one girl sent me an SMS, to thank me for being understanding of her situation and allowing her to do "less work". She mentioned that "I really can see what God's love through you..." I was truly encouraged to hear that.

Even though I didn't manage to explain the 4 Spiritual Laws (though I really wished I could have done so), I think that I was placed in the committee to develop a heart for each and every member under me. This so that I can keep them in prayer, and intercede for them, till the day when they finally proclaim Christ as their LORD and Saviour.